Fine Tuning AutoCorrect to Turbocharge Efficiency
Submitted by: Debby Reigle Software Training
We offer cost-effective Practical Excel training for you and your employees as well as spreadsheet development.
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Phone: 970-261-1069
Both Excel and Word have the ability to review what you type against a list of commonly misspelled words and automatically correct these
“typos”. This feature is known as AutoCorrect. AutoCorrect replaces what it perceives as a typing/spelling error with the correction specified in
the list. We can tweak this list to eliminate pesky built-in corrections (such as changing EHR to HER), easily enter symbols (e.g. typing (c) to get
the © symbol), or enter long strings of text with just a few keystrokes.
A good example would be when AutoCorrect automatically fixes two initial
capital letters in an entry. I often find myself holding down the Caps Lock
key one second too long and typing something that looks like this: TOtal.
Auto Correct comes to the rescue and changes it to Total. This is pretty
helpful but there are times (in a medical office for example) where you
may need to regularly use capitalization that you want to be exempt from
Excel’s AutoCorrect feature. (i.e. MD, PA, PT, SA).
1. To access the AutoCorrect feature:
In Excel 2010 the path is File Menu/Options/PROOFING.
In Excel 2007 the path is Office Button/Excel
Options/PROOFING
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Click the Auto Correct Options button. The AutoCorrect English dialog box appears.
Click on the Exceptions button. The AutoCorrect Exception dialog box appears.
Click the second tab, INitial Caps. (Notice that by default IDs is in the list of items not to correct).
In the field “Don’t correct”, type in PAs and click the Add button. You do need to add the “s” after the initials.
If your practice uses several different initials you can add each one individually by repeating the same process.
To test this feature, go back to a spreadsheet and type PA in a cell. Notice that Excel did not try and convert the A to lower case.
TIP: The shortcut to quickly open the AutoCorrect dialog box is ALT, T, A.
Customizing AutoCorrect
Another advantage is to add your own auto corrections to AutoCorrect for quick data entry. For example, you can use this feature to make
entering long names or frequently typed names (such as your practice name or your own name) with the use of an abbreviation. To add an
AutoCorrect shortcut, all you need to do is type the shortcut text in the Replace field and then type the text that you want it will expand to in the
With field.
1. To demonstrate let’s once again access the AutoCorrect dialog box.
Excel 2007: Office Button, Excel Options, Proofing
Excel 2010: File Menu/Options/Proofing/AutoCorrect Options
2. By default the dialog box should open with the AutoCorrect tab. (You
can use the scroll bar in this dialog box you will see all the default
corrections.)
3. To add our custom correction, enter the initials of your practice in the
Replace field. (For this demonstration I will use the initials DRST)
4. Under the With field, type out your practice name in full. (Debby
Reigle Software Training)
5. Click the Add button.
6. Hit the OK button twice.
7. Once again to test this feature, go to a spreadsheet and enter just the
initials in the cell. After you press <enter> the cell will automatically fill
with your practice name spelt out in full.
8. Caveat: Like most businesses there may be times when you want to
use just the initials of your practice. In order to help Excel distinguish
this all you need to do is add a special character to the initials when you set up your custom AutoCorrect so that AutoCorrect does not
overwrite the intended abbreviations. In this circumstance the field under Replace would look like this DRST* instead of DRST. It is not
case sensitive.
9. This technique can be used to enter whole paragraphs of text (such as a HIPAA disclaimer or a list of all your physicians’ names) with just
a few keystrokes.
10. Note that when you make these auto corrections they will apply to all workbooks. If you want to remove an existing shortcut (changing
EHR to HER), locate it in the list and click the Delete button.
Override AutoCorrect
A quick way to override the AutoCorrect feature is to add a space after the entry and then pressing CTRL+Z (shortcut for Undo) before hitting the
enter key. For example if you type (c) and want it to remain like that rather than having autocorrect change it to ©, all you need to do is type (c)
followed by a space into the cell , press CTRL+Z and then hit the <enter> key. This will Undo the auto correction. Note that if you don’t add the
space, Excel will AutoCorrect it.
Word
Since the AutoCorrect list is global across Microsoft Office (e.g.
Word, Publisher or Outlook) any changes you make to the list in
one program will carry through and be available in any of the
other programs that support this feature.
To set up or locate the AutoCorrect feature in Word, follow the
same path as you did for Excel (see illustration to the right). If
you search the existing list in Word you will see the additions you
just made in Excel are now part of the list.